Since 1887 A Rodent has Predicted the Weather

We have all seen the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day enough times to think that we are reliving our own moment in time over and over. Oh Punxsutawney Phil, how is it that you can predict the weather better than the Super Doppler 3000?

Since 1887 mustachioed men wearing top hats and tails have yanked a Groundhog from a box and held it up in Lion King fashion to the onlooking crowds, as TV networks carry this spectacle live across the country. We are all waiting with baited breath on whether a ground dweller rodent informs us if we can expect a late lasting winter or early spring. Apparently, genetics have a play in Phil’s prediction, sort of like a long reign of royal blood, but with a better pedigree. The family line of Phil dates back to the original Phil post the Civil War era.

So today in the small Pennsylvania town Punxsutawney Phil made his prediction, doing so with no green screens, weather graphics, or cool names like Storm Search 7. Unlike Steve Kersh all little rodent Phil has to do is look for a shadow or not and predict that spring may or may not arrive early.

For the second year in a row Phil predicted an early spring shall indeed arrive early. Onlookers from all over the world came to witness this seemingly gift of god ability to predict an early thaw of winter. From a large rodent.

With only a 39% accuracy in his predictions, which is nothing to gloat about considering it basically is a fifty-fifty conclusion. You could simply flip a coin and make a better than 39% accuracy in whether spring will or won’t arrive early.

Here is what I know:

Spring still arrives on March 19^th.  Suck it Phil from Punxsutawney.